Saturday, July 17, 2010

Hello and welcome to issue #29 of Edi's Weekend Wave. Three weeks out of office ahead. Hurray! I need it. It does not matter how hot it will be because now I have the choice to read and post during the night :-)Enjoy reading ...

Edi's Guidepost

The LighthouseNews and information straight from the horse's mouth by Lighthouse keeper ediFanoB

Holiday! Time to relax, time for family and hopefully a bit more time for reading, reviewing and posting.And hopefully some time to continue work on two more things for the blog: Interview and Giveaway. I really expect results which means you will get something new in a couple of weeks.As we stay most of my holiday at home there will be no hiatus. I still hope to present you some more posts.We will see.

Enjoy your weekend ....

Books

Dear readers, I'm the one to tell you about books - only books? What about novellas and other stuff? My name is Bona. I scour shelves, shops and the net for books. If you call me a book whore I would not gainsay you. But be aware I have my own, sometimes elusive taste.

This week we received two books. The first one is the US paperback edition of a book I read one and a half year ago and the second one is a review copy of an science fiction novel to be released in October 2010 .

Let's start with a thank you for Tor/Forge publicist Cassandra Ammerman for sending us a copy of the US paperback edition of The Affinity Bridge (2010) [ISBN-13: 978-0765323224] by George Mann.

"Welcome to the bizarre and dangerous world of Victorian London, a city teetering on the edge of revolution. Its people are ushering in a new era of technology, dazzled each day by unfamiliar inventions. Airships soar in the skies over the city, whilst ground trains rumble through the streets. Clockwork automatons are programmed to carry out menial tasks in the offices of lawyers, policemen and journalists.But beneath this shiny veneer of progress lurks a sinister side. Queen Victoria is kept alive by a primitive life-support system while her agents Sir Maurice Newbury and his delectable assistant, Miss Veronica Hobbes, do battle with enemies of the crown, both physical and supernatural. Newbury and Hobbes are called in to investigate the wreckage of a crashed airship and its missing automaton pilot, whilst attempting to solve a string of strangulations attributed to a mysterious glowing policeman and dealing with a zombie plague that is ravaging the slums of the capital." [Source]

I read the UK edition in January 2009. At this time I was an avid reader and far away to be a book blogger. At this time I wrote reading impressions over at Goodreads. And this is the one for The Affinity Bridge:

"This is the first adventure of Sir Maurice Newbury and his assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes.Sir Maurice is an experienced anthropologist who works for the British Museum. Beside this he is an agent of the Queen. He also supports Scotland Yard.After an airship crash Sir Maurice gets the order from the Queen to investigate the mysterious circumstances. And there is more work for Sir Maurice and Miss Veronica. Chief Inspector Sir Charles Bainbridge is hunting the "glowing bobby"who kills people around Whitechapel.First of all this is a steampunk novel. I read several steampunk novels before and to be honest this is a real one.The style of George Mann is fluent. The english isn't to difficult.The whole book is a like a movie in your head. You feel surrounded by the fog.You smell the tea. The automatons are great and also the airships. And not to forget there is also some action inside.When you start to read you forget the time, just praying one more chapter, one more chapter, ......If you like mysteries, Victorian Age, London, airships, automatons and steamthen read this book.In case you never read a steampunk novel before then give this one a try.If this book can't convince you to read more steampunk then you will never like steampunk.

And some more good things:THE SHATTERED TEACUP by George MannThis is a new short story with Newbury and Hobbes.And you can download it for free as ebook and/or audiobook athttp://www.snowbooks.com/

THE OSIRIS RITUAL by George Mann will be released in September 2009."

In the meantime I read and reviewedThe Osiris Ritual (2009) [ISBN-13: 978-1906727048] which will be released in August2010 in US by Tor. I look forward to the UK release of The Immorality Engine (2010) [ISBN-13: 978-1906727185], the third book in the series, which I ordered in advance in 2009!!

Few options remain for Byron. A talented but stubborn young man with a troubled past and rebellious attitude, his cockpit skills are his only hope. Slated to train as a Cosbolt fighter pilot, Byron is determined to prove his worth and begin a new life as he sets off for the moon base of Guaard.Much to Byron’s chagrin the toughest instructor in the fleet takes notice of the young pilot. Haunted by a past tragedy, Bassa eventually sees through Byron's tough exterior and insolence. When a secret talent is revealed during training, Bassa feels compelled to help Byron achieve his full potential.As war brews on the edge of space, time is running short. Byron requires a navigator of exceptional quality to survive, and Bassa must make a decision that could well decide the fate of both men. Will their skills be enough as they embark on a mission that may stretch their abilities to the limit?" [Source]

I look forward to read and review it. As the book will be published in October you have to wait until begin of October for the review. Anyway beside my review there will be other reviews AND there will be a blog tour - click here for the dates - AND surprise, surprise, suprise: for the first time Edi's Book Lighthouse will be part of this tour!

I know it is just July. Such a long time to go until October. But I have a candy for you:

Hey, I'm Bona Fide. I just came back from my last foray through the blogosphere. What can you expect from me? I tell you: Everything from Art to Fart as long as there is any faint connection to books. And here is some honey from the beehive blogosphere...

As a member of Wonderlands I received following sad news this week:

"A message to all members of WonderlandsSad to report that after roughly 2.5 years of Fantasy fun and frivolity, Wonderlands is closing its doors.

This is mainly because Ning has decided to dispose of its free network service and will be charging the Premium price to all its networks after July - but also, due to other commitments for me (Debbie) and our Admins, which mean that we do not have the time necessary to devote to the site to keep things dynamic and moving, with fresh content, news etc. And as I don't believe in doing anything in a half-hearted manner, it seems like a sensible time to draw a line under things.

So, if you have any content; pictures, images, pieces of writing, you've been keeping exclusively on your Wonderlands Ning account (not that I think our Members would be foolish enough to not have back-ups!) IT'S VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU COPY YOUR STUFF BACK TO YOUR OWN COMPUTER/STORAGE USB OR WHATEVER - AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!! At this point in time, I have not had confirmation from Ning of the date on which the network will become inaccessible - but I'm pretty sure things are set to vanish at the END OF JULY (31ST)

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED - AFTER THAT DATE THERE WILL BE NOTHING MYSELF, NICK OR MARK WILL BE ABLE TO DO, TO HELP YOU RETRIEVE ANYTHING...

But be of good cheer - if you think you'll miss us too much, you can still come on over and join us on the Legend Award site & relish in the Fantasy goodness there! We will be continuing to pay for the Premium service on the DGLA website & there's already a lot of Wonderlanders over there waiting to greet you! Just go to: www.GemmellAward.com ... and erm... tell me I sent you ;-)

Thank-you all for coming along for the ride - we've had a great time!LOLDebbie, Nick & Mark"

I have had a good time on Wonderlands in 2009. A big thank you to Debbie, Nick and Marc for all their effort! Anyway I'm member of DGLA too. So still an opportunity to meet .....

"A work of fiction in the mystery genre in which plot, setting, and/or characters are closely associated with the world of books, manuscripts, libraries, archives, etc. (example: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco)."

That sounds very interesting. I read and liked The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco a lot - for more information about the book follow this link.But there are also books with the emphasis on so called "deadly books". If you want to know more about these kinds of books I highly recommend to read Vintage Bibliomysteries: Books Can Be Fatal! over at Dark Roasted Blend. Be aware! This post can be dangerous for your reading list.

Hey, it's me Fide. I'm a remote control professional. I'm that fast that I can watch two movies at the same time.But don't worry. All the stuff I present to you will be shown at normal speed.

Today no movie trailers. Today a big thank you to ediFanoB's wife who shared with us the following video.

Do you have any experience with voice recognition? Then you may know about the perils....

That's all for today. See you next time....

QuotesI 'm the Keeper of the minutes. But I don't mind when you call me Kotm. No, no. I don't explain to you how to pronounce.In Germany we use the word Urlaub which means in British English Holiday and in American English Vacation. Anyway it means to be out of office for several consecutive days. After some research I decided to go for vacation quotes.And that is what I found ...

"Vacation is what you take when you can't take what you've been taking any longer.”Author unknown

"A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in.”Robert Orben, (US magician and comedy writer, 1927 - )

"Laughter is an instant vacation.”Author unknown

"The ant is knowing and wise, but he doesn't know enough to take a vacation”Clarence Day, (American Humorist, Essayist, Biographer and Writer, 1874-1935)

"Vacation used to be a luxury, however, in today's world, it has become a necessity.”Author unknown